Healing experiences
- Date
- Written by Fernando Alonso-Cortés
The Patient as a Customer
It is a well-established fact that healthcare service delivery is evolving rapidly. Every day we see examples of how digitalization (telemedicine, electronic health records EHR) and sensor technology (gadgets, apps...) – to name a few phenomena – are helping to enhance and personalize the patient experience.
We are facing an industry where the Customer Experience, understood as a response to their needs, is absolutely fundamental. This happens not only on the functional level (i.e., the treatment of a condition) and the social level (e.g., improving the perception of the environment towards healthy individuals). Moreover, the emotional component associated with health in general and the "healing" of a condition in particular, is even more important than in other industries.
Historically, the sector has focused on its scientific aspects (research, improvement in the effectiveness of existing treatments, and the development of new therapies and alternatives...) and technological aspects (innovation in equipment and instruments for diagnosis and the application of treatments...) with more than spectacular results. These successes have created a virtuous circle that drives further advancements.
However, the consideration of the Patient as a customer of a service – and payer, either directly or indirectly through their insurance and taxes – has had an uneven evolution. Proof of this is that the Healthcare sector is among those with the worst customer orientation index. In this regard, PWC found that less than half of healthcare companies in the USA believe that Customer Centricity is one of their greatest strengths.
It should be stated upfront that this has also evolved for the better... although there are still great opportunities in this regard. Perhaps one of the reasons for this situation lies in etymology... "patient" is someone who suffers from an ailment, and therefore, part of the therapeutic community may have rejected the term "customer," as it did not reflect the nature of the deeper need behind people with pathologies.
Without getting into a discussion about the terminology, what concerns us is the recognition of best practices in applying the three pillars of Customer Centricity and Customer Experience to the healthcare services sector: the balance between activating the Patient-Customer Journey, optimizing the Management Processes that impact the Customer, and strengthening the Organization that delivers the Experience.
The identification and proactive action on key moments of truth in the appointment-consultation-diagnosis-treatment-discharge and follow-up axis undoubtedly represents the visible face of all good practices. And as such, it is potentially the source of the greatest appreciation and recognition.
Concrete efforts in innovation in the pre-, during, and post-treatment experience are worth recognizing and deserve a space in these discussions. Actions of various kinds, whether or not related to the adoption of the latest technologies in service of the bidirectional relationship between the patient and healthcare professional, by the different actors in the sector's ecosystem.
Some examples worth highlighting could be:
Appointment-Consultation Moment
- Groups like EUGIN Reproductive Health and their concept of "Nest Rooms," which house a true transposition of anamnesis protocols (clinical data collection) in the sense that specialists visit the patient consecutively rather than the other way around. Private, comfortable spaces that create suitable environments in which the patient receives different professionals throughout the day, avoiding travel and thereby improving her experience. https://tourvirtualbcn.eugin.es
Or the paradigm shift in medical consultations proposed by Cedars-Sinai Hospital with its Cedars Connect service, offering 24/7 video consultations designed to ensure patients are treated by the same doctor in all sessions.
https://csconnect.cedars-sinai.org/?utm_source=cs_website&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign_name=web_homepage&utm_content=cs_connect_launch
- Startups like Deepscribe and their solutions based on conversational AI, which capture and interpret conversations with patients and automatically input all valuable information and critical data into electronic health records, freeing the professional from this tedious and mechanical task to focus on generating an empathetic, close, and humanistic context.
https://www.deepscribe.ai/medical-scribe
Diagnosis-Treatment Moment
- Collaborations like the one established between Siemens and Comfort Health Solutions to develop ImageScapesTM, immersive environment generators designed to transform the stressful rooms for diagnostic imaging and oncology treatments into relaxing and dream-like spaces, improving the experience, especially for pediatric patients.
https://www.siemens-healthineers.com/en-us/accessories/comfort-health-solutions)
- Solutions like those proposed by Philips, which generate environmental experiences by integrating dynamic lighting, visual projections, and immersive sound to create a multisensory environment that alleviates the patient's anxiety.
https://www.philips.es/healthcare/consulting/experience-solutions/ambient-experience-room-solutions
Diagnosis-Treatment Moment
- Device manufacturers like Huawei, which has just launched its Watch D2, a next-generation smartwatch equipped with sensors to collect nine biometric indicators in real-time, promoting self-awareness and a preventive experience. It measures, among other parameters, blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, heart rate, skin temperature, sleep and its quality... even stress levels! And it allows synchronization with tracking systems from healthcare providers, telemedicine, and insurers.
https://www.zonamovilidad.es/huawei-lanza-el-watch-d2-con-monitorizacion-de-presion-arterial-en-tiempo-real
These and other innovative practices will soon have enough evidence to support their contribution to improving the experience, which we hope will accelerate the adoption of Patient-Customer Centricity by healthcare professionals and will substantiate the philosophy behind Value-Based Healthcare—the practice of health management aimed at achieving better outcomes for patients through not only the most effective treatments but also the most healing experiences.
